Tag: Plains All American

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Yes, It Pays to Keep Customers Smiling

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Yes, it pays to keep customers smiling—even in the midstream.

As midstream activity marches on in North America, customers show preferences for providers with strong operating and project-development skills. Professionalism also matters.

The need for solutions is diverse and widespread. Constraints in West Texas―ground zero of U.S. shale-oil production―crimp output. Natural gas in Appalachia seeks conditioning and outlets. Gulf Coast petrochemical and LNG facilities demand feedstock. Canadian producers beg for market access. Continue reading “Yes, It Pays to Keep Customers Smiling”

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Opportunity Looms in the Midstream

Midstream Assets

Consisting mostly of publicly traded master limited partnerships (MLPs), oil and gas midstream suppliers, for better or worse, are beholden to a breed of investor as interested in the return of capital (i.e., distribution yield) as in the return on capital (i.e., unit-price appreciation and/or distribution growth).

With oil and gas prices currently weak, the attractiveness of MLPs as income and growth investments is waning.  Midstream customers, made up mostly of upstream entities, are hunkered down.  Drilling and development budgets have been slashed, and suppliers of all stripes are being asked to lower costs till it hurts. Continue reading “Opportunity Looms in the Midstream”